How do we design interior spaces that reduce our stress levels? One answer: Figure out a way to keep smartphones out of said spaces. TCU interior design professor Laura Prestwood should have more enlightening ideas, though, when she gives a lecture called Creating Calm Places as part of Fort Worth Center for Architecture’s monthly design talk. The lecture is 7pm at 3425 W 7th St, FW. Admission is free. Call 817-921-2111.

THU ▪ 13

Summer means Shakespeare for local theater troupes, and the Trinity Shakespeare Festival is good for two plays this month. They’re putting on the domestic comedy The Taming of the Shrew, but we prefer the political-thriller intrigue of Julius Caesar. Both plays are running at TCU thru Jun 30 at Buschman Theatre and Hays Theatre, 2800 S University Dr, FW. Tickets are $20-25. Call 817-257-8080.

FRI ▪ 14

This is outdoor grilling season, and the likes of Brownstone, Kincaid’s, Shaw’s, Tommy’s, and others will be battling it out to see who can serve up the tastiest burger in the first annual Battle of the Burger at the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. In addition, there’ll be face painting, roping lessons, a raffle, armadillo races, and live music with Luke Wade & No Civilians. The event is at 6pm at 1720 Gendy St, FW. Admission is free. Call 817-336-4475.

SAT ▪ 15

Circle Theatre goes for a lighter option this month with Miracle on South Division Street, Tom Dudzick’s comedy about a Polish-American Catholic family in Buffalo who keep faith with the notion that the family patriarch had a vision of the Virgin Mary in his barbershop back in 1943. The play runs Jun 13-Jul 13 at 230 W 4th St, FW. Tickets are $10-30. Call 817-877-3040.

SUN ▪ 16

We’ve got dueling mermaids here! While Artisan Center Theatre is running The Little Mermaid Jr., based on the Disney animated musical film, Grapevine’s Palace Theatre opens a puppet-theater version of The Little Mermaid this week based on the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. You can compare these versions and decide which is better, especially if your kids can’t get enough of the story. The play runs Jun 12-Aug 14 at 300 S Main St, Grapevine. Tickets are $8-12. Call 817-410-3100.

MON ▪ 17

The Fort Worth Cats play the McAllen Thunder this week, and when we say “this week,” we really mean it. The homestand involves nine games on eight consecutive days, including a doubleheader on Saturday. The teams should get heartily sick of each other, and you can forgive the Thunder if they come to think of LaGrave Field as their home stadium. The series runs Jun 14-21 at 301 NE 6th St, FW. Tickets are $5-16. Call 817-226-2287.

TUE ▪ 18

The Juneteenth celebration goes on all week, with a parade and a pageant on Saturday and a father-and-children fishing tournament on Sunday. Today the annual celebration of African-Americans receiving news of their freedom from slavery is marked by a poetry slam at Barcelona at 8pm at 515 Houston St, FW. Cover charge is $3. Call 817-229-3621

“Most of my fond foodie memories involve a safe place or a time in my life when I was carefree,” I said. “Like when my grandmother would make me her famous chopped liver or I would gorge on pizza during my college years.”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded, writing something down.

“At some point I began to use food for comfort,” I continued, “and it all kind of just went downhill from there.

“Now I seek out the kinds of foods that transport me back to those times,” I said. “Like Crazy Jay’s Pizza and Pasta (2817 W. Berry St.) — it just felt so familiar, as though I were back in college with nary a care in the world, aside from math tests and three-page papers.

“The atmosphere felt so ‘college,’ ” I said. The tiny Berry Street eatery, a stone’s throw from Texas Christian University, was crawling with kids, I told her, “and they were dressed as though they’d just rolled out of bed. Crazy Jay’s offers walk-up counter service” — I was starting to babble — “and there were pre-made pizzas for sale by the slice sitting under a heat lamp.”

“Uh-huh,” my therapist said. I decided not to mention how friendly the server was — who knew what she’d read into that.

I was practically swooning on the couch by this point, describing how the food was perfect for student types who value quantity over nuances of flavor. “The pie is the thin and foldable New York style, and there’s nothing fancy about it,” I said. “The sausage and pepperoni pizza ($2.50 per slice) was the size of a hubcap and tasted … well, it didn’t. It was pretty bland. The crust was nice and crisp, but the cheese and meats didn’t add much in the way of flavor. But, boy, was it filling. Like the lasagna ($9.95) — it arrived in a dish the size of a Buick, with pools of grease sitting atop a hillock of cheese. Again, the dish was pretty much devoid of flavor, but I ate it anyway because it was edible, and it was served to me.”

“Uh-huh,” my therapist said knowingly.

Emboldened by her response, I revealed more of my secrets. “For me, the ultimate comfort food is served by waitresses who call you ‘hon’ in out-of-the-way diners,” I said. “Like Moe’s Café Home Cooking (4705 River Oaks Blvd.). The menu could have been written by my grandmother. The place looks as though it were ripped out of an episode of Alice.”

“Give me Moe,” she said, or maybe it was “give it a rest.” But by this point I couldn’t stop. “The blue carpet! The green booths! They were as perfect a fit for Moe’s seasoned crowd as the TVs and tall tables were for the kids at Jay’s.”

I described how I’d ordered the ultimate comfort dish: chicken-fried steak. “The lunch special ($6.50) came with two sides and a roll. The steak itself was big but not intimidating and drenched in cream gravy. My fork cut through the tender meat like it was a pound cake, and the batter was crunchy.” I hoped she was writing this down — it was pure poetry. “My guest went for the liver and onions plate ($7.50). The thin slices were slathered in brown gravy made from drippings. My grandmother used to make me that dish as a child, and Moe’s version matched her cooking bite for bite — the highest possible praise.” What would she make of me mentioning cut-up liver and my grandmother in the same breath?

“Uh-huh,” she said, looking at her watch. “It looks like your time is up.”

“Good,” I said. “I’m starving.”

Contact Chow, Baby at chowbaby@fwweekly.com

No matter. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, acting at the behest of Republican Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, has called a special session on redistricting. They want the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature to pass the legislative and congressional district maps that were drawn by a three-judge federal court in San Antonio for the 2012 elections.

Abbott, who wants to run for governor, apparently thinks that if the legislature adopts the court’s maps as its own, that would make appeals of the legislature’s 2011-drawn maps moot.

His argument is that if the legislature’s lines match the court’s lines, game over –– court-drawn maps would be unassailable.

“These maps already have the approval from the federal judges overseeing this litigation,” Abbott wrote in a March 8 letter to House Speaker Joe Straus and the Senate’s presiding officer, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Both are Republicans.

“Enacting the interim plans into law would confirm the legislature’s intent for a redistricting plan that fully comports with the law and will insulate the State’s redistricting plans from further legal challenge,” Abbott argued hopefully.

And so the governor, who decides the subject matter for special sessions, decreed the lawmakers “will consider … legislation which ratifies and adopts the interim redistricting plans ordered by the federal district court as the permanent plans for districts used to elect members of the Texas House of Representatives, Texas Senate, and United States House of Representatives.”

But legislative experts say there is ample precedent to show that “consider” actually means that and not “rubber-stamp.” As far as the House is concerned, the subject is “redistricting.”

Redistricting hearings being conducted around the state by House and Senate committees certainly indicate that the committee chairs think they have the power and the duty to at least go through the motions of considering other options.

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, the Democrat who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said the judges themselves didn’t consider their interim maps as the last word.

“The court clearly stated, ‘This interim plan is not a final ruling on the merits of any claims asserted by the plaintiffs,’ ” Martinez Fischer said.

So the legislature can approve whatever redistricting map its members choose. If the governor doesn’t like the outcome, he can veto it and call them back for another special session. Or more.

That said, unless the U.S. Supreme Court throws out Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which it is considering doing, this is almost certainly headed for court or to the Justice Department — or both.

Section 5 requires Texas and several other mostly Southern states to “pre-clear” all electoral changes before they can take effect, either with the Justice Department or with a three-judge federal court in Washington, D.C.

Civil rights lawyers at a May 29 hearing before three judges in San Antonio warned that ramming the interim maps through the special session without enough attention to minority concerns is sure to bring lawsuits –– that could go on for years.

“We might be litigating this thing until your life term expires,” Luis Vera, a lawyer for the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the judges.

Veteran Texas political journalist Dave McNeely can be reached at davemcneely111@gmail.com

It isn’t.

I spoke with Elmer DePaula, superintendent of code compliance for the city’s consumer health division, who told me that there were no indicators that people wanted a change in the smoking ordinance beyond the one made in 2007, which banned smoking in restaurants. Passage of the current ordinance, he said, was driven by a group of restaurant owners, concerned citizens, and representatives from the American Heart and American Lung associations who provided input to city council. “Generally speaking,” he said, “it’s a public-interest thing.”

I guess I’m not really surprised. It’s one thing to motivate yourself and others to get tobacco smoke out of the places where your family goes to eat chicken fingers and overdone steaks, but since your kids (the little ones, anyway) don’t normally tag along when you’re out just to get hammered, nicotine smog is largely an inconvenience and not enough of one, apparently, to make people organize and pester the city council.

However, nonsmokers can cross their fingers and hope for a statewide ban. Earlier this year, State Rep. Myra Crownover from Denton and State Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston introduced a bill banning smoking from public places, but it got snuffed out in the Senate. This is the fourth time in as many regular sessions that anti-smoking efforts have been crushed.

So there you go. If you want smoking out of bars, you’ll have to do more than gripe on Yelp. Maybe you can get together with like-minded people and talk about it over drinks. –– Steve Steward

Bad Design

I swear I don’t really care what a bar’s website looks like. As long as the business hours and address are easy to find, what more do you need to know? Sure, a menu helps, but if you can read it on a laptop screen, you can read it on a laminated piece of cardboard.

Recently, I made the mistake of trusting the information listed on a couple of bars’ webpages and ended up being that dolt who shows up when the establishment is closed, to hopelessly peer through tinted glass at stacked chairs and empty rooms. Of course, I could call ahead, but why should I have to? If your bar’s hours change in the physical realm, the virtual realm should reflect the change. Why even have a webpage if it’s going to be wrong?

As a case in point, I drove all the way to North Fort Worth to get lunch and a beer at a place called Blue 32 Sports Bar and Grill. I went at lunchtime because the website said the place was open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Or at least the part of the page (the bottom, under a heading that reads “OPENING HOURS”) that I saw did. When I arrived, I found a huge, spiffy bar with a nice big patio fronted by an empty parking lot, because Blue 32 doesn’t actually open until 3 on Tuesdays, according to a sign on the front door. Figuring I’d misread the site, I looked it up again. Indeed, in the middle of the homepage, between some Getty images of Heineken bottles and French fries was a blue rectangle claiming that the bar was open weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m. I wasn’t about to come back at 3 only to find I was still two hours early and that I had made two trips around 820 in one day just to drink a beer at a sports bar. Out of curiosity, I looked up the joint’s Facebook page. There I learned that Blue 32 opens at 4 p.m. I went home and drank beer on my couch, because that place is open 24/7. –– S.S.

Contact Last Call at lastcall@fwweekly.com.